Recycling/Waste Reduction at Work/School
Recycling is important, not only to save energy and to conserve our natural resources, but to reduce the amount of waste going to landfills. Recycling can be beneficial to your school by cutting down on garbage disposal costs, making students and staff aware of environmental concerns and helping to reduce waste instead of creating it. Take pride in showing respect for our Earth!
How to set up a Recycling program at your Workplace/School
- Form a "green team" – Approaching recycling as a team can help ensure the success of your recycling program. A "green team" is a group of employees interested in recycling and helping to set up a program.
- Determine materials you will recycle - Performing a waste audit can help. A waste audit is an inventory of the amount and type of solid waste (trash) produced at a location.
Commonly recycled business items:- Office paper
- Magazines and catalogs
- Newspaper
- Cardboard
- Aluminum cans
- Plastic bottles
- Toner and ink jet cartridges
- Contact your property manager - Find out if there are any recycling programs in place. Ask them to provide office paper, cardboard, aluminum can and plastic bottle recycling as a service to building tenants. Remind them that recycling can reduce waste disposal costs. On your own - If your property manager cannot provide recycling, or you are a small business, meet with your green team and decide what materials you want to recycle.
- Contact a recycling company - Interview multiple companies and get price estimates for providing a dumpster and pickup services. Most recycling companies provide rebates on materials collected.
- Drop-off Recycling - If pickup services are not an option, another option is to take your recyclables to a drop-off recycling center.
- Coordinate collection - with the recycling service provider, janitorial crew and/or staff.
Think about:- Small bins - You can provide durable recycling containers to each staff person or ask them to use copy paper boxes or something similar at their work stations. Decide what type and size of bin to locate next to printers, fax machines and other machines that generate paper.
- Central bins - Locate large recycling bins in copy rooms or break rooms.
- Collection - Create a regular schedule and determine who will pick up recycling from the small and central bins. It may be staff, janitorial crew or a combination.
- Drop-off recycling - If your staff is using a drop-off collection center, set up a team and schedule for taking recyclables to the center. You may also need to determine a place to store recyclables.
- Communicate all this information to your entire staff and janitorial crew.
- Educate staff
- Distribute fact sheets describing the new recycling program for employees and janitorial staff and post updates on your company's intranet site.
- Provide bins and collection containers as mentioned above.
- Mark containers with signs labeled by item. It is helpful to use the "chasing arrows" recycling symbol.
- Plan a fun kick-off event
- Send a memo from management to all employees encouraging participation.
- Fun events, giveaways and refreshments could be provided.
- Distribute fact sheets, signs and containers.
- Schedule orientation sessions for each department.
- Let others know about your efforts
- Write articles for the employee newsletter, intranet, and building and industry newsletters. Acknowledge people for changing their habits and keep people informed of the results of their efforts. Seek staff’s suggestions.
- Send out press releases to the local media. You may also want to include information in customer or client mailings.
- Include your recycling efforts in company promotional pieces.
- Maintain your program
- Have your green team meet regularly to evaluate your recycling program’s progress. A successful program will continue to grow in volume recycled. The team can also address other green issues such as energy consumption and alternative transportation.
- Stay in contact with staff. Update your staff regularly on the program’s progress. Send out periodic recycling reminders. Train new employees about the recycling program.
- Identify a recycling point person to handle tasks such as answering staff questions, managing the green team and program oversight.
Waste Reduction in the Workplace/School
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, each year, Americans generate millions of tons of trash, more than any other country. "Source Reduction" (reduce and reuse) is a basic solution to the garbage glut. Because source reduction actually prevents the generation of waste in the first place, it comes before other management options that deal with trash after it is already generated. After source reduction, recycling and composting are the preferred waste management options because they reduce the amount of waste going to landfills and conserve resources.
Reduce
- Weekly Newsletter: Send one newsletter home per family when multiple siblings attend the same school. Better yet, send the newsletter via e-mail. Resources are saved because paper is not generated and information is received in a timely manner.
- Paper Copies: When making copies, use both sides, a half sheet or dry-erase boards instead of paper, whenever possible. Use an overhead projector or marker board to display meeting agendas, rather than making individual copies.
- Waste-Free Lunch: Designate a day each week to have students/teachers/staff members bring their lunch and drinks in reusable containers, in a reusable bag, including a cloth napkin. Involve students and staff in designing a logo to have printed on their usable lunch bags to sell in the school store. If you buy lunch, take and use only what you need – one napkin, one ketchup packet, one salt packet, etc. Remember to recycle your cans and bottles.
- Use Reusable: Make cups, plates and tableware available to teachers and parents during meetings, as well as encourage waste-free classroom parties.
- Milk Cartons and Trays: When these items are not recycled, schools can reduce trash volume by having students empty leftover milk in a bucket and flatten the carton. Tap food from lunch trays in a garbage can and stack them. Biodegradable and reusable trays, plates, cups, bowls and tableware are available.
- Waste Audit: For one day or one week - collect all garbage then sort and analyze it to see if the garbage could have been reused or donated, recycled, composted or repaired.
- Saving Energy: Turn off computers and lights when not in use. Unplugging appliances and electronics saves even more
energy and money. - Packaging: Buy products with minimal packaging or buy in bulk without packaging whenever possible. Take reusable cloth bags to the store - leave them in your car to have them at hand.
Reuse
- Formalwear and Costume Exchanges: Coordinate a day for classmates to bring their gently used formal wear, such as dresses, accessories, ties, shirts, etc. and receive a voucher for items they brought. Once items are organized, students are invited back to swap a dress for a dress, a purse for a purse, etc. It is best to involve multiple schools to get a variety of items. On an elementary level, this type of exchange can be done with Halloween costumes.
- Puzzle and Book Swap: Instruct parents to make sure the puzzle or game is complete, tape up the box and sign the box stating this is so. Each student can be given a token for each item he/she brought to trade in for new ones. Milk caps that have been washed work well for tokens (different colors reflect the type of trade in). Other items to swap can include CDs, DVDs, VHS videos and magazines.
- Trash to Treasure Art Projects: Find creative ways to incorporate materials that would ordinarily be thrown away into a piece of art or a game.
- One Person's Trash is Another's Treasure: Collect gently used clothing, equipment and furniture to donate to a favorite charity or organization rather than throwing it away. Have a school rummage sale where proceeds are used for a school project.
- Locker/Desk Leftovers: Organize an end-of-the year locker or desk clean out. Redistribute library books and school supplies, and donate unwanted clothing items (wash first).
- Be Nice Use It Twice: Keep a box for paper that has only been used on one side. The other side can be used later for fax cover sheets, math problems, brainstorming for writing assignments or spare-time drawings.
Recycle (use in addition to the tips listed above)
- Pre-Cycle: Buy goods in containers that can be recycled at your workplace/school. Talk with the director of operations for the most up-to-date information.
- Traditional Materials: Aluminum and steel cans, plastics, office paper, newspaper and cardboard.
Buy Recycled
- Workplace/School Store: Make available tree-free or recycled-content pencils, paper, folders, rulers, scissors and MORE!
- Team Shirts: Clubs and Organizations can purchase t-shirts made from recycled materials. Most shirts can be customized to include your school's logo.
- Awards: Recognize special efforts and milestones by giving awards made from recycled glass, metal and wood.
Compost
- Worms: Use organic food scraps (fruits & vegetables) from the lunchroom/cafeteria to feed red wigglers (worms) housed in an indoor bin with a lid. This is called vermi-composting. Worms are nature's recyclers because they eat half of their weight in food garbage a day and produce a nutrient-rich soil.
- Outside: Outdoor composting bins are good for small branches, leaves and grass clippings. Be mindful of any applicable municipal codes.